


When The Sun Burst Through The Skies

by Katherine



Category: A Companion to Wolves - Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette, After the Gold Rush - Neil Young
Genre: Gen, Psychic Wolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-13
Updated: 2013-02-13
Packaged: 2017-11-29 03:37:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/682293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katherine/pseuds/Katherine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The night before the boy met the wolf pups he dreamt of the past. In his dream, he saw armored knights each with a wolf by his side. The knights were speaking in murmurs he couldn't quite make out. Ahead of them was the huge queen-wolf the whole pack followed.</p>
<p>When his wolf chose him, the joy was like banners flying in his mind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When The Sun Burst Through The Skies

The night before the boy met the wolf pups he dreamt of the past. In his dream, he saw armored knights each with a wolf by his side. The knights were speaking in murmurs he couldn't quite make out. Ahead of them was the huge queen-wolf the whole pack followed.

 

When his wolf chose him, the joy was like banners flying in his mind.

Growing up together in the wolfhall was a joy as well, though with responsibility added to them with each year. Absorbed in learning and his place in the pack, the boy only dimly noticed how the forests they ran through together diminished.

Pawpads hardened so that running on concrete all the time was not painful. Yet his wolf carried a mental ache from being hemmed in by buildings.

 

Now, the round moon was bright in his eyes, even through the soot-smeared and cracked basement window. His head ached, and he thought longingly of his favourite vice. It would be such a relief to float up high for a while away from all of this.

He frowned at his wolf's thick disapproval.

"Why not trellhorses instead of trellwolves?" he said. "Horses eat fermented apples. A horse would understand. One of those could fight whatever there is to fight. Hooves rather than teeth."

His wolf was well-versed in his brother's teasing, and simply waited, patiently, until he was willing to listen.

 

None of them deeply wished to leave. The wolves themselves admitted that, regret thick in the pack-sense. But they were adamant that Earth could not long remain their home.

They were not, of course, going into the sun, but wolves are not the most accurate of astronomers, and had fixed their collective thoughts on the brightest object in the sky.

 

The wolves were the first of the passengers into the ships. Their men watched the silver, brown, and white-brindled shapes of them moving up the long ramps. First the queen-wolf of each pack, then the pups who were the seed of the future, then in rough order of hierarchy the other wolves.

Only once all the wolves were safely inside did the humans start in their own passage up the ramps, towards the future of them all.


End file.
